In Peril On The Sea

Sellathurai Mahalingam was standing on the bridge of the M.V. Semlow watching night settle upon the Indian Ocean when he first realized he and his crew were in trouble. The waters off East Africa were unseasonably flat and the Semlow, loaded with 850 tons of rice, food aid for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in Somalia, was cutting its way north at a steady 12 knots, some 55 km from the Somali coast. Then, out of the dark, came a burst of gunfire. "I saw the flash of five to 10 shots," says Mahalingam, 58, a short Sri Lankan man...